I know there are threads out there on this topic but do seem to answer quite what I am looking for. I have never done any push technology before so some guidance here is appreciated. I understand how when something has changed that that triggers the push to any browser that is listening but I do not think that quite fits the scenario that I am looking at trying to do.
We are rebuilding our users web application where they track shipments. We will be allowing the users to build there own searches that match how they do their job. For example, some will look for any shipment that is scheduled to deliver today where others look for shipments that are to be picked up today and still other that look for shipments that need to be scheduled for pickup. So when they come in an open the application I can give them a count for each of their work tasks that they need to do today. So now what I want is that the count will change based on the SQL being re-run. But I do not want the user to have to refresh the page to see the new count.
How do I have this SQL run and push the current count to any browser that is using this SQL. What is the mechanism that automatically re-runs this SQL? Keep in mind that I will have 50 or more of these unique SQLs that will need to be executed and the count pushed.
Thanks for your guidance!
I think this falls pretty cleanly into AJAX's role. AJAX will allow you to make GET and POST requests to the server, which will process the query and return results to a JS function. At risk of jQuery evangelism, the API makes this sort of thing extremely easy and standard, and you can have pretty much any event you want to activate it.
This has a few concerns, namely client-side inputs and SQL injection. If you're sending any input through a POST request, you have to be VERY careful to sanitize everything. Use prepared statements, don't perform query string concatination+execution, and generally assume the user will try to send text that you don't want them to. Give some server-side bounding to what inputs will be acknowledged successfully (e.g. If the options are "Left" or "Right", and they give "Bottom", either default it or drop it).